Battle of the Biscuit: Ghee Hiang v Him Heang
Posted by sisi on December 19th, 2010
Apart from its famous street food, Penang is also famous for its tau sar pheah. The Star newspaper had an interesting article today about the history of two iconic biscuits brands in Penang, Him Heang and Ghee Hiang. Ghee Hiang was the pioneer of Penang’s tau sar pheah, established in 1856. Its popularity in the past (circa -1960 through 1970s) amongst locals made the company neglectful of customer service. And like typical family-run businesses of yore, it did not have aggressive ambitions to expand. What it meant was that customers tended to get the short end of the stick, i.e. queuing up for biscuits and getting turned away empty handed when the day’s production has been sold out.
This naturally led competitors, specifically Him Heang, to fill the gap in demand. Credit to Him Heang that they also innovated by introducing the Tambun biscuit (or dragonball biscuit) which is half the size of the Ghee Hiang tau sar pheah.
That got me to thinking, which one do Penangites actually prefer?
I personally don’t mind either in terms of taste. The only consideration is that the original Ghee Hiang tau sar pheah is a little messier to eat because of its size compared to Him Heang’s Tambun biscuit (I note that they also have the smaller sized version of the popular tau sar pheah) and packaging (remember the five pieces in a white paper roll?). With a little effort, I can fit a whole Tambun biscuit into my mouth in one go. *wink*
So which biscuit do you swear your allegiance to? Vote on the poll below (or click here):
Posted in Food Polls 
Tags: Ghee Hiang, Him Heang,Tow Sar Pheah2 Responses to “Battle of the Biscuit: Ghee Hiang v Him Heang”
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Barnabee says:
Ghee Hiang is da best!!!
